Thaindian News

Panaji, June 13 (IANS) Two unknown men who molested three tourists, including two foreigners, at the popular Candolim beach June 10, may go scot free as the victims were “not interested” in following up their complaint, police said Monday.

Senior Police Inspector Manjunath Desai told IANS that the complainants had left for Delhi and were not available for follow up investigations or even identification of the suspects rounded up by the police.

“The victims had not even agreed to do a medical examination, which is mandatory in such cases. They said they were not interested in the case. We had filed an FIR (first information report),” Desai said.

Police sources said that one of the foreigners is a relative of a Delhi-based foreign consular official and that the trio were under the influence of alcohol at the time the incident occurred late Friday night.

The three victims, who were accompanied by a male friend, had visited Candolim beach — adjoining the extremely popular Calangute beach, 10 kms from here - at 11.30 p.m., when the lifeguards attached to a private beach management agency advised them to leave the area since it was dark and secluded.

“After a while we heard some cries for help and immediately rushed to the spot where they found three girls, two foreigners and one Indian, scared and crying. We also summoned the patrol jeep and the supervisor. The girls stated that two Indian men had tried to molest the two foreign girls and this was also obvious from their clothes, which were crumpled and partially torn,” says a statement issued by the beach management agency Drishti.

The statement added that the molesters ran after seeing the beach patrol team. The tourists were then escorted to the life guard tower at the beach, after which the police arrived.

Recent sexual assaults on female foreign tourists and the lackadaisical response of the police have reinforced Goa’s image as an unsafe beach destination.